And so, we have a new Pope. I happened to be working from home last Thursday when I saw the news headline pop up that there was white smoke seen from the chimney at the Vatican, indicating as you all know that the Conclave had reached a Conclusion. I switched on the live footage (actually turned on Sky News for some reason) and watched as the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, as all the speculation mounted and people tried to predict who the next pope might be. It’s not like predicting the next Dr. Who or James Bond, because these days you have a fair idea about that, but with the Conclave they say you enter as a Pope and leave as a Cardinal, meaning the list of favourites never win election. Nobody was predicting Robert Prevost from Chicago, so when the cardinal came out and said “Habemus Papam!” (not “abemus”, as I wrote, my Latin is bad) and announced who it would be, it was for sure a surprise. He took the name Leo XIV, and is the first American* Pope. (*from the US; the first American Pope was the last one, Pope Francis, who was from Argentina, but this is a question for trivia bores next century). Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, I liked him a lot. I’ve not seen many Popes in my lifetime, John-Paul II came in when I was a baby and was Pope until just before I moved to America* (*the US), and I remember that Papal Conclave back in 2005 when they got Ratzinger. I’m not a Catholic myself but many of my family are, and a lot of my neighbours growing up in Burnt Oak so the Pope was a big deal for a lot of them. I thought there might be an Italian Pope again for the first time in my life, or maybe even an African Pope, but I was very surprised to see an American* (*US) Pope emerge. He’s spent a lot of time in Peru and is strongly connected there, and even spoke in Spanish for a bit while addressing the crowd at the Vatican. I sketched the TV and wrote down some of what people were saying on the news. He’s young at only 69 (so people kept saying) so might be the Pope for a good while yet. So there we have it, a new Pope, and he’s from Chicago. That’s pretty cool.